Simple HIIT Rowing Workout: 15th Jan 2016

Simple HIIT Rowing Workout

On Friday I split my training into two sessions – the first one was cardio, focussing on HIIT. The first section was HIIT on the spin bike, the second section was a simple HIIT rowing workout.

Simple, yes. Easy, hell no. In fact it was so tough that I just lay flat on my back afterwards whilst I regained my energy! I left a nice sweat patch on the floor for good measure.

Warm Up:

Spin bike, 5 minute warm up, followed by a HIIT session of 30 seconds sprint, 30 seconds, recovery. Maintain this for 10 minutes, but don’t go all out – you need to save energy for the main event – the simple HIIT rowing workout.

The main event: the simple HIIT rowing workout….

To do this simple HIIT rowing workout, you set the rower to 20 second intervals with 20 seconds of recovery in between sprint intervals. On a Concept2 rower you do this by following the steps below…

Menu – select workout – new workout – intervals, time.

Set the intervals for 20 seconds and the rest period for 20 seconds.

The aim of the workout is to perform 20 sprint intervals (it starts on interval 1, so you’ll have to go until it says interval 21).

The idea is to sprint as fast and as hard as you can and during the recovery, do as little as possible.

Simple HIIT Rowing Workout Notes…

The Concept2 works with a flywheel, meaning that the more you row, the more momentum you build up in the flywheel. Therefore it makes sense to keep moving – it’s easier to keep the flywheel moving than it is to start the flywheel moving.

This is where this simple HIIT rowing workout is so tough – by enforcing a 20 second rest after every interval, you lose the momentum in the flywheel. This means the first 4-5 strokes of each new interval are extra tough because you have to build the momentum in the flywheel again.

I really went for it with each interval. It made this a seriously tough workout! Just looking at a 20 interval workout, you could be fooled into thinking it would be easy, but if you really put effort into each interval this simple HIIT rowing workout can be brutal.

I know, I did it!

After the simple HIIT rowing workout I cooled down with a 5 minute plod on the elliptical and did a thorough stretching session.

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